Systems: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: July 16, 2021
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Tantalus Media & Nintendo EAD
I had initially planned on writing a First Impressions article for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD and I had actually started the article too. A few hours in, I felt like I had the beginnings of likes and dislikes for this Wii exclusive that had motion-only controls adapted to now function with the multipurpose Joy-Con controllers on the Nintendo Switch. I had written about 3/5ths of the article when I was about halfway through the first major temple in the game. Then I hit a burst of playing the game and put in roughly 18 hours, beat Skyview Temple, Earth Temple, Lanayru Mining Facility, met up with Impa and am now currently exploring the Ancient Cistern, being the second round of major dungeons in the Faron Woods.
I had tried rewriting the article to be more in line with where I was in the game, but that felt disingenuous from a First Impressions point of view. I started to change the tone and the verbiage to indicate how far along I was in the game and how I felt at one point might have either changed or not at all by where I found myself, and by that point in the editing process, I was finding the process daunting, frequently finding sentences that I liked and hadn't edited but ended up not fitting with the rest of the paragraph.
This brings us to here.
I am currently in the Ancient Cistern (which is not pictured here, but we'll get there soon enough). I recently acquired the whip and like a lot of the motion-controlled turned controller-only mechanics, I am having issues with directional attacks and worried about the longevity of the joysticks of the Joy-Cons. I could detach the Joy-Cons and play either in docked mode or in tabletop mode, but tabletop mode is rather difficult while you are lying in bed. There is a lot that I am liking about Skyward Sword, even though it took me a while to put my brain in the mindset that a lot of puzzles were created with the player using the Wiimote in a novel manner. Such as the rolling eye puzzle in Skyview Temple, flipping spiders onto their backs using an upper-cut slice, and having your companion Fi telling me that I sucked at fighting Lizalfos because after 26 hours I still have a hard time attacking in the direction I want because I cannot read the defenses of any enemy with a shield.
I recall there being a strong reaction against the art style for the game, especially after the grittier than Windwaker take on Link in Twilight Princess, but I have grown accustomed to the characters' appearance at this point. Link looks like Link. Zelda looks like she was created from a Mii, Groose is your stereotypical toxic male figure who hates Link and wants to doink Zelda, and Zelda's dad Gaepora looks like he was taken out of a Kurosawa film from the 60s; I am okay with that after having him look like a bear from western Europe for the last couple of games, Breath of the Wild included.
Like any game, there are aspects that I am enjoying and others I am not overly fond of. One other aspect of the game that I am a little annoyed about, is the treasures and consumables like insects and bobbles you find throughout the game. I have to tell myself that Skyward Sword was developed in the same four to five years as Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks which also have collectibles and consumables locked away in treasure chests as a reward for solving a puzzle in a dungeon. I know, I know, I am old. I just feel like these types of rewards should be relegated to simple brown chests like rupees, not the larger decorative chests that look like they would hold a dungeon-specific treasure like a map, a key, or an item like the Hookshot or Boomerang. Although I'm thankful that the whole drudgery about dragging a giant boss key halfway across the dungeon map is no longer a thing.
One last gripe I do have about the game though, and I know that there was some behind the scenes work with character dialogue and something to do with how Link interacts with items, but I wish that you did not have to reengage with characters every time you want to choose a new dialogue option. Say you are talking with Gondo and you want to repair your shield, but then he gets upset because your shield either doesn't need repairing or broke beyond the point of being repaired. So you decide that you would like to have your shield, the one that doesn't need repairing, upgraded. So you have to reengage with Gondo for a second time and work through the albeit short dialogue tree to select your wooden shield to upgrade, only to find out that you are short a Golden Skull. He gets upset again like you are deliberately wasting his time. This happens every time you talk to a merchant and end up not purchasing anything. And god forbid you call down the rope for Beedle's shop to see what he has in stock only to find out that you are short 69 rupees and he drops you out of his shop when you leave because you didn't buy anything. I get it. It's funny the first time, but now I am afraid to go into his shop if I have less than 900 rupees.
I am having a lot of fun though. It feels really good to play a Legend of Zelda game that I am enjoying (glares at Spirit Tracks) for the most part that takes place at the beginning of the Legend of Zelda timeline. And as long as I continue to approach puzzles with the mindset that they are designed around motion controls even when I am not using motion controls, I think that the next 25 or so hours are going to be fun. Now if I could just figure out what to do in the stupid water temple.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental
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